soooo its been a few months since my last dye job. ive been busy buying plastic and playing and havnt dyed crap . welp i did 3 in the past few days,nothing extravagant but newer stuff and i did my first 3d looking dye and i think it came out ok.i also bought some champ pds and had to get rid of that funky ass stamp so i came up with a simple pd stamp and this one is fresh as of 5 min ago.

thanks brandon! The 3d would have been sweet to do on gl plastic. I don't have any though . Pm sent on the dye though.

thank you eky8

zach....just keep rubbn it with ur thumb lol nah get you some acetone and some cotton balls. Then go to town but don't rub on it too hard,you don't need to. I recommend gettn a straw or eye dropper and dripping the acetone in small spots at a time,let it sit for a few seconds to soften it up and then wipe. After you wipe it all off take another fresh cotton ball and soak it in acetone.then wipe the whole disc and let it air dry. Don't try to wipe it with a towel or ur finger or with a dry cotton ball. It'll leave smudges like crazy.hit me up in a txt if you got questions

Your xacto skill is coming along pretty well. I can still see "corners" in your curves, but only if I look really hard. Next time you are cutting some vinyl, try practicing this: however you hold your xacto, get a feel for being able to rotate the blade axially with your fingers. You always want the cutting edge tangent to the line you are cutting, so rotate the blade in your hand as you complete the curve proportional to the curve's arc.

This lets you complete more sizeable arcs without ever stopping the cut. Pausing mid-curve is the big reason for unintentional corners, and usually a pause only occurs while you reset the blade angle for the next portion of the arc. If you can learn to continuously correct the blade's angle, always keeping it tangent to the curve, you can cut longer without resetting.

This allows for more freedom to choose where to reset the blade for the next cut, so choose reset points at real corners or during a relatively straight stretch.

Blade manipulation like this helps your hand to better mimic a plotter. On the machines I have seen, the blade is on a swivel that spins freely as the head moves around. If you can make your finger/blade system into a swivel of sorts, it makes for a cleaner cut. If only those swivel blades that Xacto sells didn't suck so bad...

We are not like those other golfers. We throw our clubs and keep our balls where they belong. -Ol' Bob

thanks for all that info chuck! I see what your sayin about trying to mimic the plotter,it's always a pain in the ass doin small circles and curves with the 360.it helps more than using just the stationary xacto but it still suxors. Sometimes I have to stop on big curves because of the way my hand may be positioned and cramps up. I thiink if I get more practice in cutting more curvy ,circular designs it will be easier to do . ithe comet was the first one I did in a few months so I was a bit rusty and had a couple bleeds but I'm still happy with it being my first 3d cut. You definitely inspire me to keep @ it man. You as well as AB,bennettua,and others I forget to mention. I'll keep at it and take your advice man. Thanks!

booter wrote:I think if I get more practice in cutting more curvy ,circular designs it will be easier to do .

That's pretty much it right there. Try to get away without using the swivel blade at all, it will help you get smoother quicker. Sorta like playing putter-only rounds, except in this case I truly believe that the swivel is inferior 99% of the time. Every now and then I have a tight circle to cut (like <5mm diameter) and I bust it out, but even for one cut it is still more of a pain than just doing my best with the fixed blade.

I think it would be fun to do that same empty sphere you did, with graphics on the ribbon. It would be tough to 'wrap' the graphics with the ribbon of sphere, though. Escher really knew what he was doing.

We are not like those other golfers. We throw our clubs and keep our balls where they belong. -Ol' Bob

Have either of you (ChUcK or booter) tried dying the back of the disc for designs like that? I would really only work for clear plastics like the CFRs and Opto type stuff, but I'm curious if the effect would be any better or worse. I realize it would be a small pain to make sure everything lined up correctly and you couldn't go to the edge of the disc, but booter elected not to do that anyway.

booter wrote:I think if I get more practice in cutting more curvy ,circular designs it will be easier to do .

That's pretty much it right there. Try to get away without using the swivel blade at all, it will help you get smoother quicker. Sorta like playing putter-only rounds, except in this case I truly believe that the swivel is inferior 99% of the time. Every now and then I have a tight circle to cut (like <5mm diameter) and I bust it out, but even for one cut it is still more of a pain than just doing my best with the fixed blade.

I think it would be fun to do that same empty sphere you did, with graphics on the ribbon. It would be tough to 'wrap' the graphics with the ribbon of sphere, though. Escher really knew what he was doing.

right on. thats what i really use my 360 blade for anyway. for really small circles and stuff. i did the pd design withjust the stationary blade. not too difficult but not nothing i couldnt do without taking my time. i like the idea of having graphics on the ribbon ! but i agree ,it would definitely be hard to manipulate that type of dye. i smell a new challenge for you chuck! btw,how is it that you get your 3d designs all the way to the edge? do you free hand them to make them bigger or what? i tried to make the design bigger and print it out but it wouldnt print big enough to do it to the edge without it getting some parts cut off.

fiercetable- ive never done one of these 3d designs on the back,this was my first attempt at it on the disc period.it would be pretty hard to do that all the way to the edge but i guess it would depend on the design. i opted to do the design this way and not go all the way to the edge because it wouldnt print out on my printer any bigger.

well i actually do use ps but when i print preview a design i want to fit the disc tightly like the sphere,it cuts edges off so i have to reduce the size to even fit on the paper. its weird because i want them to run to the edge like you do yours. it definitely helps with the 3d effect

ok. i just got done with my next dye for my friends shop. its a tiger design on a z stalker. the thing is super pearly. i almost want to keep it for my self.i was half tempted to dye the disc itself orange now but i might leave it like it is.